Jurgen Klopp has been speaking to the media in the aftermath of our 1-0 loss to Villarreal on Thursday evening.
He claimed two big incidents cost us dearly – the incorrect offside call against Adam Lallana in the 74th minute, and Alberto Moreno’s positioning for their goal.
“Of course I’m not too happy with the goal we conceded in the last second. Counter-attacking in the 92nd minute makes not much sense – but it is only the first leg,” he said (via BBC).
“It is 1-0 and they have to come to Anfield where we know how strong we are. We had our moments, we defended really good. This race is not over.
“If we had enough players around the box it was no problem but they played this one chip ball over Kolo [Toure], I don’t know where Alberto [Moreno] was in this moment but that was the only big mistake we made in this game and they scored with it.”
On the Lallana call, he said the following:
“There was no offside with Adam Lallana so we did not have the luck today but it’s only the first half.”
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He is clearly right on both counts – for all his attacking threat, Moreno’s positioning has cost us time and time again this season. The Lallana decision is a shocking one for the officials, he wasn’t even close to being offside.
That said, it’s important not to play the blame game. We lost. We have to take it on the chin, hold our heads high, and get mentally ready for the return leg. Klopp will be drilling that into his players for the next week.